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You thought this was gonna be something else, didn’t you? While I may, or may not, write a piece on handling suicide in your media (tl;dr version: don’t consult psychologists on how to handle it and then proceed to do the exact opposite of what they say won’t be harmful) eventually, today is not that day. Today, I have the first half of 13 reasons why 13th Age is the coolest game from a player’s perspective. The other half will be from the GM’s side of things by the Heavy Metal GM because ya girl bird has never GM’d a thing in her life.

1) BSing Your Backgrounds13th Age was my first ever TTRPG, but I’ve spent a few nights playing 1st and 3.5th editions of D&D. The thing that stuck out to me most as a difference between them was the lack of flexibility in other games. If my friend has a limb ripped off by an errant owlbear and they’re taking 20 ongoing you-just-had-your-arm-forcibly-removed-from-you damage, I can at least try to tie a tourniquet around their arm to staunch some of that until we can get them to a qualified healer, even if I don’t have a background specifically in healing. In D&D, my party member bleeds out because I didn’t take the first-aid skill and “press down on a wound” is just soooooo far out of my range of capability as an adventuring person. If you can sell it to the GM and the dice are on your side, you can do anything. Or at least try and have some hilarious stories to tell about crit fails. Backgrounds in this game are a little more loosey-goosey than others, the freedom of which is quite refreshing; and as long as you can sell why your background might apply to the GM, you can add it for a bonus to skill checks. “Former court jester for the Emperor” might help you with anything from diplomacy checks to feats of acrobatics; the possibilities are endless until the GM decides to rein you in. ;)

2) Cool Combats, Even for Clerics!My other big beef with older versions of D&D (I have yet to play 5E) was that as a cleric, I got to do absolutely nothing interesting in combat. My friends would get the snot beat out of them, I would say “I heal stuff” and then my turn was over. In 13th Age, you get three types of actions; standard, move, and quick, and you can downgrade one type for more of the other. Healing spells are usually a quick action, which means your shank-happy girl gets to give life and take it away in the same turn. >:D The other nice thing about this is that if you’ve split the party (bad idea, do not recommend), you can downgrade your standard action to get two move actions and put a meat shield between your squishies and whatever eldritch horror they’ve irked in one turn, rather than having to revive them after they take that 50 points of tentacle damage.

3) GET SOME CLASS!The class system in 13th Age is really diverse, and even within classes, it’s possible to come up with completely different builds. We had two clerics in my Tuesday group and we couldn’t have been more different functionally, and we never felt like we were stepping on each other’s toes. Side-note: HIGHLY recommend playing a bard; they’re a lot of fun and I feel like are the best example of being able to build vastly different characters within the same class. Bonus: you can take a spell called “vicious mockery” which basically means sticks and stones will break my bones but words will never --- oh dear, I’m dead.

4) Make Your Own Gods13th Age allows players to come up with their own set of gods and there aren’t set rules as to how a follower of so-and-so needs to behave, something that, you guessed it, rankled me as a player in 3.5; which, to be fair, may have just been the GM at the time. Gods also aren’t explicit movers and shakers within the 13th Age universe, although GMs can certainly choose to make this the case. Instead of having gods meddling with the affairs with mortals, 13th Age encourages the use of the icon system, my next point.

5) The Icon SystemThe Icons are 13 power-players in the world of 13th Age and are (mostly) mortal. They’re people who can be killed, but it’s not recommended for players to attempt to do so before 10th level. Each player takes relationship points with different icons and rolls a d6 for each at the beginning of the session. 5’s and 6’s will allow a player to do a thing they are normally not capable of, if they can sell why their relationship/affinity for an icon would allow them to do the thing. As an example: if I’m out of heal spells and my friend is dying from that vicious owlbear attack and I want to re-attach their arm, I can spend a 5 or a 6 with the Priestess to do so because she’s a pillar of strength and healing, and that has inspired me to find an extra reserve of magic. Fives come at a cost determined by the GM, so for this example I might be draining my own HP to complete this ritual, whereas sixes are just straight up boons without major consequences.

6) Finding an OUTOUT, in this case, stands for “one unique thing.” Pelgrane Press forces you to come up with a fun, non-combat related quirk for your character. Sometimes they’re silly, other times they’re central to your character’s development/arc in the plot. They can range from ,“I have a mouse companion that swaps out all of my gear to something equivalent when I’m not looking” to “I am destined to kill the Orc Lord” to “I am an animated suit of armor with the previous (deceased) user still inside it” to “I know when I will die, but not how.” Whether your character shares their OUT with the rest of the party makes for interesting player dynamics.

7) Magic Items!You can make your own with the help of the GM! HOW COOL IS THAT?! The standard ones in the core rulebook are pretty sweet, with each type of item granting a standard bonus (e.g. armor gives a +1 to AC and PD) and then typically a funsy on top of that (e.g. being able to see around corners). The Book of Loot contains magic items that are tied to specific Icons (e.g. a ring that will transport you to The Elf Queen’s chambers each night when you go to sleep) which have some really fun story implications. Another fun element from Pelgrane is that if your number of magic items exceeds your current level, you begin to exhibit the “quirk” denoted under each entry for a specific magic item, such as “exhibits a strong taste for rare meat” or “remembers poetry from obscure 11th Age authors” – offering players a unique roleplaying opportunity and a nice ice-breaker for those new to the role-playing scene.

After three years of playing this system and little else (Gumshoe & Star Wars being the exceptions), I’m not tired of it, and having something that remains entertaining and accessible for newbies and old hats alike is pretty awesome in my book. With that, I’ll turn it over to the Heavy Metal GM (in a few weeks), who will tell you why 13th Age is the bee’s (metal) knees from the GM’s perspective.

FancyDuckie is a 20-something researcher by daylight, and mahou shoujo cosplayer by moonlight! She’s also known to play murder hobo elven clerics with a penchant for shanking twice a week. Also known as “science girlfriend” of The Heavy Metal GM. When she’s not chained to her sewing machine or doing other nerdy stuff, she enjoys watching ballet, musical theatre, pro hockey, and playing with any critter that will tolerate her presence. You can find her on Twitter, Tumblr, Cospix, ACParadise, Facebook, Instagram, & Wordpress, all under the same convenient handle.

It's obvious you haven't played RPGs for any length of time, here's an example:

"In D&D, my party member bleeds out because I didn’t take the first-aid skill and “press down on a wound” is just soooooo far out of my range of capability as an adventuring person." As a player you should able to use your imagination and come up with a solution to the issue above without needing to dig through the book for a ruling.

Here's another example: "My friends would get the snot beat out of them, I would say “I heal stuff” and then my turn was over." Wrong again. You failed to think outside of the box. If my cleric did nothing but heal stuff I'd replace him/ her with potions and scrolls of healing.

Next time please just review the game, and not try to give the perception that your game is better is somehow better than another.

Reply

David Cuesta

4/5/2017 11:40:04 am

I agree that te author point of view is short sighted, but 13th age's background system is in many ways better than other d20 skill systems.
I can learn much more from a character with the background "battle medic of the 13th empireal legion" than knowing that he is trained in healing.

I also think the clerics are more fun to play than in earlier editions of dnd.

Reply

Scott Morgan

29/5/2017 01:18:30 pm

13th age's background system is great; but in reality, it's a throwback to 1st editions' secondary skill. Back in the day where you weren't limited by a "build," you could do what you and the DM agreed to, and the only stats you needed were those to adjudicate combat.

Caj

4/5/2017 05:17:34 pm

To be fair, the author was not claiming to have extensive RPG playing experience, in fact - she states her limited amount up front. And this is less of a "review" and a (again, fully disclosed) presentation of a biased opinion that 13th Age is "better."

If you want a different player's perspective, i've been a D&D addict, playing since the 80s, all editions online and off, table top and electronic media, and i concur with the overall idea the author is presenting.

This is why i, a dedicated D&D player for over three decades, love 13th Age. It is more my GM style with it's story-telling driven adventures instead of the mechanics-based rules found in every edition of D&D.

It makes me wonder if you've played 13th Age yourself. It is more like an improvised story telling session, with players co-authoring the world and improvising character and story based adventures.

13th Age, in fact, is more conducive to out-of-the-box thinking than D&D is, especially earlier editions.

Hopefully by being less defensive of the author's position, honestly you came across rather combative, even if unintentionally, you can see the value of some of the exciting 13th Age elements, which you can (as even suggested by the core rule book), lift and place in any campaign. The 13th Age creators, after all, were the lead designers of 3.0 and 4.0. So the lineage is there and available for anyone to make use of.

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Fancy Duckie

6/5/2017 09:54:25 am

It's called hyperbole, friend! If 1st or 3.5 is your jam, I'm not knocking you for enjoying it. It's not mine for the reasons I stated -- my GM told me I could either hit stuff or heal stuff, and no amount of "player ingenuity" was gonna fix it. If I didn't take a skill in "healing" I wasn't allowed to do anything related to it. I didn't like that style of play, which is why 13th Age is appealing to me and a lot of other folks. You do you, though.

Fantastic article! I run a live, tabletop-inspired comedy show in Vancouver and these are precisely the reasons why we use 13th Age as our engine. The Backgrounds alone have been an amazing source of comedy. Can't wait to read part 2!

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Caj

4/5/2017 05:22:31 pm

My observations:

1) You nailed the backgrounds. In fact, the "Former court jester for Icon X" example is almost verbatim how i describe it to new players due to the flexibility of that single background in multiple scenarios. I will add that character creation for D&D 5.0 includes some 13th Age background-like ideas.

The main Player-centric problem I have encountered with Backgrounds is players give up too easily with, "None of my backgrounds fit this situation." No, no! This is the chance for players to extrapolate something new from their creation. Part of the fun is to find a way to creatively convince the GM how a non traditional background can fit, even for partial points.

A GM-centric problem i have encountered is when a GM chooses a background saying, "Use background X. It's the best one." I understand guidance may be needed for hesitant players, but GMs should still allow the player to choose a background, even one that doesn't traditionally fit the scenario (see earlier remark), because, again, part of the fun is discovering more depth of character through bridging past history into current narrative.

2) In addition to the simplicity of the action-based turns, I would add the simplicity of "near" vs "far away" makes combat run so much faster and smoothly than calculating feet or adhering to grid distance.

4) Yes, and to compliment the player created pantheon, 13th Age still allows non divine powers to drive traditionally divine spells. I had a cleric whose god was actually the voices in his head and then there is the cannon example of the power of belief in the GGW's philosophy that can drive the zeal to power a cleric.

Reply

Fancy Duckie

6/5/2017 10:07:35 am

Ahh thanks a bunch, I totally spaced on the distance mechanic! Also far easier than some other systems although it has led to some disputes over what counts as "nearby" and "far away" haha. I love that idea for a cleric, that's super cool!!! GGW is also a really interesting icon for that reason; he's not quite divine but is also a really good dude/kinda immortal.

I have mixed opinions about this post as I love both 13th Age and 5e. I'll also state that while this comment will contain some criticisms of 13th Age, I could easily write a similar comment about 5e flaws. But here are my thoughts (I'll use your numbering system).

1. Yes, I like the diverse background mechanic. However as a GM, I'm already fed up with having constant bartering sessions with players as they argue the toss with me that "Keeper of the Royal Menagerie" should allow them to add that skill bonus to some kind of medical roll because "The menagerie once had a sick tiger". It's time consuming, dull and with a little imagination pretty much any player can argue a fantastical case for using a bonus.

2. Combat in 13th Age is certainly more varied than the usual "roll to hit" or "stand back and heal" of other d20 games. However as a GM it's a royal pain in the ass to track because of the number of ongoing effects, bonuses and the sheer amount of player powers which take affect on an allies turn rather than their own. Never mind odd and even rolls or "natural 16+" effects. A particular pain in the ass in Roll20 for instance where deciphering what the actual "natural" roll was is much more difficult than at the table.

3. More classes is not necessarily better. The Commander is a nightmare purely because of the things raised in point 2 above. The Chaos Mage and the Occultist? Leave them at home please. Your GM only has one life. Don't ruin it.

4. Can't comment. I don't go into that depth of play.

5. The icon system sounds great in the book. The reality is that it's awkward for the GM, makes published adventures difficult to master because there are so many paths dependant on icon rolls and relationships. I appreciate that some people will love this feature but in my case I can do without it, particularly given I run mostly one shots.

6. and 7. I agree.

That's not to say I don't love 13th Age. I own every book published. I run a Play by Post game and I regularly run one-shot 13th Age adventures. But it's combat system in particular needs a slide rule and a very good memory to execute well. I still love it but I'm always edgy just before a session because I know I need to be on top of my GM game and can't ever let my guard down.

Part of the issue as well is the core book's organisation. If someone casts a spell in 5e then it's easy to look up in the Player's Handbook as they're all organised alphabetically, with all spells bundled together regardless of class.

Compare this with the 13th Age core book where you have to go to the pages for the class, then know what level the spell is, then look alphabetically. Much slower.

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Fancy Duckie

6/5/2017 10:03:53 am

& this is precisely why I have no desire to GM lol! TTRPGs aren't my main hobby & the time and energy you have to put in to be familiar enough with all of the classes and other rules is just way too much for anything short of a full campaign which is definitely a flaw in this system. It makes (general) sense but there's A LOT to learn and it's not easy to just pick up and play without commitment. I love playing the Occultist class (but she only comes out for our October/Halloween campaign) but I don't even want to think about how difficult managing them on the other side of the screen must be... although it is nice to give the Heavy Metal GM a taste of his own medicine for all of his weird rule interpretations. ;) Would you be interested in an article on how to make good use of the icons system? If so, I'll poke HMGM for one!

Reply

Scott Morgan

29/5/2017 01:21:59 pm

I am looking into 13th age, not so much for the system as a whole but for the Icon relationships which I find intriguing. I was hoping you could write a blog post on how you work the relationship die, b/c while the relationships themselves make perfect sense, I don't really get how to use the die rolls, other than sudden aid from your relationship shows up on your doorstep or something.

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